"GENEVA -- In what is turning out to be one of the hottest years on record, the warming temperatures pose an immediate threat to one of Pakistan’s most endangered creatures, the snow leopard.

A study by the World Wildlife Fund, released on Friday — World Snow Leopard Day, says that the warming temperatures have caused ice to melt, further shrinking the cat’s habitat. The higher temperatures along with illegal hunting means that as few as 4,000 of the mysterious animals could be left in the high mountains of central Asia.

Unless climate change is checked, more than a third of the habitat could vanish, with warmer temperatures pushing the tree line higher and farmers moving further up the mountains to plant crops and graze livestock, it added."

Agence France-Presse had the story October 24, 2015. [2]